Stephanie Beacham

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty eight, and the presenter was Michael Parkinson.

Presenter0:30

Our castaway once described herself as a convent girl destined by her upbringing to be a cosy wife and mother, which is perhaps not quite how the rest of us think of her. Until recently, she was that fantasy glamour figure of the 80s, the rich bitch in an American soap opera, in this case Sable in the Colbys. Before that, she served a steady apprenticeship in the theatre, made a movie with Marlon Brando, and became a big television star by appearing in Tenko and Connie. After the glitz of a Hollywood soap opera, she returned to London to work with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She is Stephanie Beecham.

Presenter1:04

Stephanie, can I go back on that quote? I mean, was the background cozy? Very cosy.

Stephanie Beacham1:08

See red velvet curtains, chickens and dogs and cats and ponies and

Stephanie Beacham1:15

ballet and the ideal upbringing.

Presenter1:19

Wh where was it? What were we talking about?

Stephanie Beacham1:20

In in Barnet, in Hertfordshire. Four of us. My name I've always said was Richard Dijennysteff, because my parents could never quite remember which one of us was which.

Stephanie Beacham1:30

Uh I was the third one out. I think it's quite a good position to be because you don't get uh looked at all the time.

Presenter1:37

What do your parents do?

Stephanie Beacham1:38

Mummy never did well, I say she never did anything, she was always very busy, looking after us a lot, and making everything very cosy. My father was uh worked for the Grosvenor Estate, uh uh seemed to look after the Duchesses quite a lot, and he was in insurance before that. Nothing to do with the theatre.

Presenter1:55

Was there any anything in the in the family at all, from any of the the various branches, that might suggest you might become an actress at all?

Stephanie Beacham2:01

Not even vaguely. And one of our uh quotes in the family, one of the family things that we like best is that my father, after having seen me in a forehander at the Haymarket Theatre, which is no mean theatre, said, you know, I think that Steffi

Presenter2:02

Ah

Stephanie Beacham2:17

Is every bit as good as a real actress.

Presenter2:20

So where do you think the talent came from then? I mean, or the ambition came from to be an actor. Were there some were you influenced by movies or or what?

Stephanie Beacham2:27

I've always loved the black and white movies. Anything with with Betty Davis, Joan Crawford. I wanted to be a ballet dancer, but I was told by when I had my examination for White Lodge that my feet weren't pretty enough.

Stephanie Beacham2:42

and that I would never quite make the grade, which was terribly sad at the time. And then I thought I would do uh deaf teaching.

Stephanie Beacham2:51

And I went to Paris to study mime because I wanted to do movement with deaf children.

Stephanie Beacham2:58

And

Stephanie Beacham3:00

Then I met an actor.

Stephanie Beacham3:01

and I went to visit him.

Stephanie Beacham3:03

and they were just starting up the Liverpool everyman.

Stephanie Beacham3:06

Terry Hans, Peter James.

Stephanie Beacham3:09

And I thought this is the theatre. This is exciting.

Stephanie Beacham3:12

and they were auditioning for the juvenile lead.

Stephanie Beacham3:14

And I thought

Stephanie Beacham3:16

I'm gonna have a go.

Stephanie Beacham3:17

And I remembered a speech from O level English of Juliet's.

Stephanie Beacham3:22

And I did it, and they thought it was very funny.

Stephanie Beacham3:25

And they employed me.

Presenter3:27

Let's have a first choice of record, please.

Stephanie Beacham3:30

I think that I would like to have the March from Aida.

Stephanie Beacham3:36

This was the very first record on Seventy Eight that I ever had as a child.

Stephanie Beacham3:42

And I used to.

Stephanie Beacham3:43

play it and march up and down on the back of the city. I think I must have been about four.

Presenter4:50

That was a grand march from Verdi's Aida. Stephanie, you mentioned there that uh at one point in your in your career, very early on, you wanted to work with deaf people. This is because in fact you're deaf yourself, aren't you?

Stephanie Beacham5:01

I'm so fortunate because my deafness is the easiest deafness to cope with. I am completely deaf. I have no hearing whatsoever in my right side.

Stephanie Beacham5:10

But I have no white noise. People think of deafness as silence. Of course it isn't. It's sometimes very, very noisy and awful.

Stephanie Beacham5:19

But I have good hearing in my other ear, but what it means is that I hear two dimensionally.

Stephanie Beacham5:25

I hear like you would see a primitive painting. Everything is flat.

Stephanie Beacham5:30

Which means that one to one it's absolutely fine. Big parties are o o a bother. A a lot of lip reading has to go on. And because you can't see deafness, people don't remember it, and I keep having to skip to the right hand side of them. In Hollywood, when I kept uh going to the right hand side of Charlton Hurston, they thought it was because I was rather more fond of my right profile than my left. But it was nothing to do with that at all, it's because old mother here's deaf.

Presenter5:54

But they're used to that kind of uh of uh attitude in Hollywood, aren't they? Shoot my right profile.

Stephanie Beacham5:58

More used to that than they are to the FF.

Stephanie Beacham6:05

Not when I'm working.

Presenter6:06

Can we

Stephanie Beacham6:06

Because I know everybody's uh script and I listen very hard. And listening, I'm sure, and therefore you you react. It's it's uh probably what acting is, really, is reacting, isn't it? So I listen very hard and my concentration is good, probably better than it might be if I had uh full hearing.

Stephanie Beacham6:23

It is a problem in that I get very tired lip reading, trying to hear, and I think it makes me more of a loner than I might be by nature. I think it also affects the the things that I like to listen to in the way of music. I think my taste is simpler than it might be uh uh had I full hearing. I've never heard stereo.

Presenter6:45

No.

Presenter6:47

I

Stephanie Beacham6:47

I hear in Monica.

Presenter6:49

Extraordinary. Yes. Well, d does this a silly question really m might have an interesting reply. Does this ability that you have to lip read I mean, does it give you certain advantages in certain situations?

Stephanie Beacham6:59

I can contradict somebody across a room, yes.

Presenter7:04

You make up and started saying terrible things uh secretly about you at a party or something like that, must be wonderful to do it. Let's have another choice of record.

Stephanie Beacham7:12

I think I'd like to have some country and western now. I'm very fond of country and western music. My sister and I make up my elder sister and I make up country and western songs. Her latest lyrics are I bore your children, now I'm boring you. It's deep stuff. I was actually sent out of a Latin exam. I was sent out of a Latin exam for singing because I used to learn all my Latin by making up country and western things to remember it by. And I was nusque means nowhere, nom quer means never, and me hill means nothing at all. Anyway, I was sent out. Willie Nelson, always on my mind. I'm very fond of Willie Nelson and family. I know them in Los Angeles, and they're a great relief from Hollywood. They appreciate jeans and no makeup and straight talking. I'm so happy that you're mine.

Presenter8:12

Little things I should have said and done

Presenter8:18

I just never took the time to have.

Stephanie Beacham8:25

When you were always on my mind

Presenter8:25

Yeah. Uh

Presenter8:26

Uh

Speaker 18:26

Uh

Presenter8:27

Uh

Stephanie Beacham8:27

Uh

Stephanie Beacham8:32

You are always on my mind

Presenter8:35

Wooden Nelson singing always on my mind. Stephanie Beacham, you're at Rada in London during the sixties. Was that of the Bohemian life?

Stephanie Beacham8:44

Yes, it was. I lived in a a a commune.

Stephanie Beacham8:48

And we had a compulations board, which meant that everybody just uh wrote down what they had bought, and a cup was replaced with a cup, never mind what sort of a cup had been broken, uh it was the functionalism of the object that uh we respected. And uh it was a v very good group of people. We were architects and and sculptors and artists and

Stephanie Beacham9:13

Um I was the acting rep. I'm so happy that I was young and a teenager at a time of such optimism. We really felt that we knew that love was the answer and uh

Speaker 19:23

Yeah.

Stephanie Beacham9:29

If

Stephanie Beacham9:29

Our generation could only rule the world, there would be no more wars.

Stephanie Beacham9:34

I think it's very interesting that Geldof and people like that who also were young then are still fighting this same fight. I I I you know, God bless him and all the others that are doing it.

Presenter9:45

When you were then and th this young actress coming out of Radenau, starting your your career, who who were the heroes? Who were the people you looked up to? The people that you hope one day to emulate, perhaps?

Stephanie Beacham9:55

I've always had a thing about not being able to sing.

Stephanie Beacham9:59

And I would have preferred to have been

Stephanie Beacham10:01

Janice Joplin without the drugs rather more than any of the uh actors. And of course I uh of on stage I've always adored Judy Dench. I look up to Anne Bancroft and then I thought th th those wonderful old dragons of Hollywood I've always enjoyed. But it was more the music people that I would have liked to have been.

Presenter10:23

Uh Did you want to be a film star?

Stephanie Beacham10:25

Not really. My career has always taken me completely by surprise. My greed

Stephanie Beacham10:34

It starts when I open a script.

Stephanie Beacham10:36

Rather more, I never hear about projects. I don't read any of those those trade papers. I never know what's going on. And then a script comes in. I think, Oh, dear, what's this? The paper's rather thin. Is the printing going to be bad? Oh, this looks interesting and I get greedy for the part that's in front of my nose and and then just have to

Stephanie Beacham10:56

Well, good better best, never let it rest till the good is better and the better best That was the convent again. That's how my career's been, rather than uh any plotting and planning or or or ambition.

Stephanie Beacham11:08

Uh just greed of the moment.

Presenter11:11

Another choice of record, please.

Stephanie Beacham11:15

Elton John Amarina. Amarina was the the name I gave.

Stephanie Beacham11:20

My puppy child, my dog that Michael Winner and Marlon Brando gave me after the night comers.

Stephanie Beacham11:27

I was desperately keen on Elton John when I was filming with Marlon Brando. Perhaps it was a sort of defence against the absolutely glorious nature of Marlon Brando, but I had to think up somebody else to fantasise about. Uh such a a charismatic actor.

Stephanie Beacham11:42

Lately, I've been thinking

Stephanie Beacham11:47

How much I miss my lady, Almarina, then a coffee.

Stephanie Beacham11:54

Riding them with debris

Stephanie Beacham11:57

Leave me here.

Stephanie Beacham11:59

Like a lusty flower

Stephanie Beacham12:02

Run through the quails for hours.

Stephanie Beacham12:05

All I'm to thy haze, whoa, like a proper child.

Presenter12:11

Elden John singing Amarina.

Presenter12:13

Stephanie, you you were talking there about working with Marlon Brando and Michael Winner. This is a film called The The Nightcomers. And it was obviously I mean it was a it was a big breakthrough in a in a sense. Did you get the Hollywood treatment?

Stephanie Beacham12:24

I got the Hollywood treatment, I got the Hollywood offers. But at that time, you know, I was frightened of anybody who wore a suit, let alone I was. Um I didn't trust them at all, let alone people that talked about money and building my career and going on talk shows and

Presenter12:42

But don't th that's not not a bad thing. It doesn't make you a bad person, you know.

Stephanie Beacham12:45

It doesn't make you a bad person and I love doing all of it now, but I I am no longer frightened. I am thrilled that I didn't go to Hollywood. Why, what do you think might have happened? I think I'd have had plastic surgery.

Presenter12:53

I think I'd have

Stephanie Beacham12:56

therapy, uh psychoanalysis, and probably been a miserable person who didn't dare jump up on a stage and make a fool of themselves. You can get uh

Stephanie Beacham13:08

protected uh by business managers. You don't understand your life. I'm very glad I didn't go until I knew who I was. I didn't fancy the idea of being shaped and formed.

Stephanie Beacham13:23

And that's what would have happened, I think.

Presenter13:25

Going back to that shaping and and forming,'cause that's interesting. This quote that I I uh gave at the beginning of the programme, that you said that you describe yourself as this convent girl destined by her upbringing to be a cosy wife and mother. Well, I mean, you were a wife and mother, but uh I mean, what happened to that sort of image of the cosy wife and mother? I mean

Stephanie Beacham13:44

A rotten old marriage, really. I married the the person that should have been my best friend, and uh a sheer delight to go out with, and such a silly person to get a domestic arrangement with.

Stephanie Beacham13:59

But what?

Stephanie Beacham14:01

Fantastic about being an actress is there's nothing you can go through in real life that you can't then use later. I mean, we're we're we're the only folk who, if you have anything horrid happen to you, uh, you can use it. And I think that uh

Stephanie Beacham14:16

The surprise of

Stephanie Beacham14:19

A failed marriage jolted me into the realization that I had to bring up my children. I therefore.

Stephanie Beacham14:27

Wanted some commercial work because I wanted money because I knew that I wanted to give my children the very best.

Stephanie Beacham14:34

And that led to Hollywood, and that's been thrilling.

Presenter14:38

Another choice of record, please.

Presenter14:41

Yeah.

Stephanie Beacham14:41

Elvis Presley. Why not? It's part of all our pasts, isn't it? Don't you remember those those those boys slicking back their hair? Girl of my best friend, I've always thought it was a a a lovely record.

Stephanie Beacham14:54

The way she walks.

Stephanie Beacham14:58

The way she talked.

Stephanie Beacham15:01

Uh

Speaker 115:02

How long can I pretend?

Speaker 215:08

Oh I Can't help it, Iron Loo.

Presenter15:24

Elvis Presley and the Girl of My Best Friend.

Presenter15:27

Stephanie Beecham, you went to America and you had this huge success playing the rich bitch in the coal business.

Presenter15:34

Tell me I mean what was it like going to the

Presenter15:38

uh state as a star.

Stephanie Beacham15:40

Well, the first couple of months I got off scot free because nobody knew who I was, so I was able to go round all the tatty shops and uh really nose around and and and be a tourist. That was on one level. The other level w w was uh the the complete shock of the efficiency of the system.

Stephanie Beacham15:59

They're not wasting a minute. They really pay you and they really work you. Professionalism is superb.

Stephanie Beacham16:07

Uh the efficiency is superb, the optimism is superb. I've learnt so much in this last couple of years about how our business really works.

Stephanie Beacham16:18

Delightful. You've just got to have the energy and the stamina and the go, and it's all there for you.

Presenter16:24

What doesn't it have?

Stephanie Beacham16:28

You don't talk in terms of nuance of character, perhaps. I mean, you you talk to yourself about that. Perhaps it the conversation is more about the figures of the the viewing figures. I mean when somebody came up to me and said fabulous numbers, that was the first word this particular producer ever said to me uh I didn't know what he was talking about. No, it's number my vital statistics. What are we talking about? I'd no idea. But now I understand, because otherwise you don't get the money to make the next one.

Stephanie Beacham16:58

So a little blend of um what shall we say, a little blend of R S C and the National Theatre along with heavy commerciality, and I think I'm beginning to get a a a vision of how it all work.

Presenter17:09

What about the the the the character that you you play? I mean, it's really it's wonderfully over the top. I mean isn't it? I mean all the soap opera is totally realistic.

Stephanie Beacham17:16

Totally realistic, Michael. How can you say that?

Presenter17:17

Can you say that?

Presenter17:20

But it's it's wonderfully over the top and it's it's almost as a parody of this of this rich

Stephanie Beacham17:20

But it's

Presenter17:24

uh rich person, this rich bitch. Um is there a a a a danger, do you think, that that you could actually because you're living in this this extraordinary lifestyle, in this extraordinary place, that you could almost believe that you are that character?

Stephanie Beacham17:38

Well, I couldn't. I couldn't. I mean, I went to Hollywood with two pairs of knickers and and a teapot. And I am allergic to Rodeo Drive. Uh I mean, I I really

Stephanie Beacham17:49

I'd look at the price of a jumper and say that would feed a Biafran family for a year. But I took in Rodeo Drive and saw that these women did have these alarmingly long nails, and so I decided well I would have even more alarmingly long nails and that they must use a can of hairspray a day, so I would use a can and a half um and uh uh be the ultimate in um matched jewellery, if you like.

Presenter18:20

That's another choice of record.

Stephanie Beacham18:22

Marla's Resurrection Symphony. I love this, I find it very moving.

Stephanie Beacham18:28

That's just so beautiful, gosh, I wish I could sing like this lady who comes on in at the end and just soars like a bird.

Speaker 119:06

Please hit me.

Speaker 119:16

Only smoke wage.

Presenter19:36

Part of Marla's Symphony Number Two in C Minor The Resurrection, conducted by Laurie Marzell.

Presenter19:43

Stephanie Beacham, you you were mentioning earlier that that everything that happens to an actress who goes through life uh becomes

Presenter19:50

sort of fodder. You can use it later on in life. I wonder, you see that extraordinary creature you created, Sable, I mean, was that a composite of of people you'd met in in real life?

Stephanie Beacham20:00

Yes, everybody who's ever been nasty to me. Uh I I've usually just

Stephanie Beacham20:05

Gulped, swallowed, and thought, Oh, I'll use that.

Presenter20:10

What about the the end when it when it came? I mean, was it a great disappointment uh to you, uh, when the show was taken off air? Or did you in fact oh yeah, I think by that time had enough, do you think?

Stephanie Beacham20:20

I would have been very happy financially to have gone on for a few more years because I'd have become a very rich woman. On the other hand, I had begun to realise, having the funds that I had, that I wasn't that interested in money. And it's rather lovely to have it given to you and then realise that it's not that important to you. I was with my sister in Paris. I was making a mini-series, as I think that's what safe stars do, isn't it, on their hiatus. And my sister was my younger sister was visiting me. And she didn't know who I was talking to or what I was talking to them about. But she said that I seemed to lose ten years from my face in the two-minute conversation as I was told I no longer had to play Sable Colby. So mixed.

Presenter21:05

Another choice to record, please.

Stephanie Beacham21:09

The Commodores

Stephanie Beacham21:11

Night shift

Stephanie Beacham21:13

Um

Stephanie Beacham21:15

It's the sort of modern soul music I like. It's got a a little bit of reference to reincarnation in there, nothing too heavy, and I wouldn't want to go too heavily into it. Um good song.

Presenter21:29

So cute.

Stephanie Beacham21:31

Uh

Presenter21:31

What's going on?

Presenter21:36

Say you will.

Presenter21:38

Sing your songs.

Presenter21:45

Gonna be some sweets

Presenter21:48

Coming now

Presenter21:50

Nice.

Presenter21:54

I thought you're singing.

Presenter21:58

Commodore singing Night Shift

Presenter22:00

Stephanie, d what brought you back to England?

Presenter22:04

Didn't

Stephanie Beacham22:04

Jeremy Irons's voice on the telephone. Saying what? Saying, Well, we just had a terrible aftershock from that horrid earthquake, and uh I was trembling and thinking this is a very unsteady place at the moment, and suddenly the mellifluous tones of Jeremy Iron's voice saying, Stephanie, there's this lovely part in this play we're doing. Would you just like to pop over? John Barton would love you to do it, and John Barton is like a teddy bear. And the idea of joining the RSC and Jeremy Irons and John Barton and all those old friends seemed like well, it seemed like a fleet of care bears suddenly coming to look after me. Two weeks later, there it was press night. It didn't feel at all like the care bears were there to look after me. But a wonderful experience, and good to jump on a stage again.

Presenter22:53

And is that how you you would see the future then? I mean, you said earlier that you don't plan anything at all, but I mean, is let's sort of ask a d different question. What would be the ideal for you in the future?

Stephanie Beacham23:02

Oh, some very sensitive film director who came up to me and said.

Stephanie Beacham23:08

I think everything you've done so far is nearly rubbish, but I think I can see inside you something that I want to pull out.

Stephanie Beacham23:16

Ready for it?

Stephanie Beacham23:18

I see yeah.

Presenter23:19

What about the when you come back here, you you come back actually with a new celebrity status? I mean, you were famous before you went because of tenko and corny, but you came back with a different kind of uh ambiance, if you like, or into a different ambience. Um how do you react to that?

Stephanie Beacham23:33

Terribly well apart from my hair. It's such a shame that I have to visit the hairdressers so often. But apart from the hair, I'm absolutely delighted by the whole thing. It's so exciting when you say, Oh, look, there's so-and-so, and they're pointing back at you and they want to meet you too. I'll never forget when I met uh he's dead now, but I saw Liberace on an aeroplane. I was leaving Las Vegas and I thought, Gee, that's Liberace. I mean, I remember him from Sunday afternoons and George and his mum and the candelabra. Gosh, I'd love his autograph. I couldn't possibly ask for it, though. And that second the the air hostess came up to me and said, I hope you don't mind, but Mr Liberace would like your autograph. And I was tickled pink. So that aspect of it all i i is lovely.

Presenter24:22

Another choice of retro, please.

Stephanie Beacham24:24

Missa Criolla. It's uh an Argentinian

Stephanie Beacham24:28

Piece of music. It's so moving. It's so joyful and so sorrowful. It's a beautiful piece of music.

Presenter24:37

Te la satura, pasa los hombre

Presenter24:44

By side of the soul please, get medicine.

Stephanie Beacham24:48

Uh

Presenter24:48

Enlash

Stephanie Beacham24:49

The pasta of some way

Presenter24:56

Yella bamboo, Yadora Move, Yala Bamo, Yadora Mo

Presenter25:07

The Gloria from a Misa Criola conducted there by the composer Ariel Ramirez.

Presenter25:13

Stephanie Beacham, do you think you're going to like the idea of this desert island? I mean, first of all, the solitude. Would you like that?

Stephanie Beacham25:19

Yes, I'm I'm very good by myself. I I have a very jolly time, and nobody stops me from singing. Uh my children would give their pocket money back rather than hear me sing. So I'll sing a lot to myself on the desert island. I'll enjoy that.

Stephanie Beacham25:35

I'll also write a lot of poetry, and no one can tell me that it's bad.

Stephanie Beacham25:39

Yes, I can sit and stare for a long time.

Presenter25:42

Are you are you a practical person though? I mean, could you uh build a boat? Could you build furniture on the island?

Stephanie Beacham25:48

Oh, yes, could you?

Presenter25:48

Could you ask? Really?

Stephanie Beacham25:50

Uh but the chances are I'd make a very makeshift set up for myself and then set up a wonderful fantasy world for some two inch high dolls that I would carve, and providing they were comfy and had everything that was needed, uh I I'd be perfectly happy.

Presenter26:06

That's your hobby, in fact, isn't it? Making dolls' furniture and

Stephanie Beacham26:06

Let's

Stephanie Beacham26:08

Yes. Uh it's a very lovely way of having

Stephanie Beacham26:14

Um, memories that aren't huge around me because I can find a little tiny

Stephanie Beacham26:21

Cup of an acorn, which becomes a bowl, and I'll think, Yes, I remember that. I got that in that

Stephanie Beacham26:26

Great Forest in in So and So, and I'll always remember that, and uh I'll put in some tiny little something or others that I say, Well, those are the beads from Dolly Parton's dress Oh, it's a lovely memory store.

Presenter26:38

What what do you think you would you'd miss most?

Presenter26:41

on your desert island.

Presenter26:44

My kids. And what would you be glad to be away from?

Presenter26:50

The News

Presenter26:51

Final choice of record, please.

Stephanie Beacham26:54

Well, I need somebody to talk to. I really would need somebody to talk to, and although I know that I would make up an imaginary dog.

Stephanie Beacham27:03

and tell it off a lot and tell it to sit down and go to bed and stop being such a problem. I think the person I'd like to natter to most would be Joyce Grenfell.

Stephanie Beacham27:12

Uh so let's have her talking to children.

Speaker 227:14

Oh yes, we're a very happy band of brothers here. Edgar, let go of Timmy's ear and sit down.

Speaker 227:20

Now come along now, Sidney, come out from under the table and join in the fun.

Speaker 227:24

No, you're not in a space rocket. No, you can't wait for the countdown. Now, come on out now.

Speaker 227:30

Don't you want to help us tell our nice story?

Speaker 227:33

Well, then say no, thank you, and stop machine gunning people, please. Nevill, Neville, finish being a train, dear, and sit down.

Speaker 227:42

All right, well get into the station and then sit down.

Speaker 227:45

George

Speaker 227:47

Don't do that.

Speaker 227:49

Now we'll have some nice straight backs, shall we? What are we going to tell our story about to-day? Rachel, take your shoe off your head and put it on your foot. Now shall we tell it about a little mouse, or what about a big red bus? About a dear little bunny rabbit. Well, Peggy, that is a good idea. We'll tell it about a dear little bunny rabbit.

Speaker 228:11

No, Sidney, he wasn't a cowboy bunny, and he didn't have a gun.

Presenter28:14

As the irreplaceable Joyce Grenfell talking to children.

Presenter28:18

Stephanie Beacham, you're now on this desert island. Imagine you have eight records as company. One day seven of them melt in the sun, you're left with one. Which one would you would you want to keep?

Stephanie Beacham28:29

Miss a career, though.

Presenter28:30

Why?

Stephanie Beacham28:31

Because it goes through all the

Stephanie Beacham28:37

Feelings of mankind, the joy, the sadness.

Stephanie Beacham28:42

And it comes out at the end with with a gentle optimism that is probably how I feel about things.

Presenter28:49

And what about the book? Assume you've got the Bible and the works of Shakespeare.

Presenter28:52

What book would you like?

Stephanie Beacham28:53

Novsky the Ascent of Man

Presenter28:55

Yeah And the luxury object inanimate.

Stephanie Beacham28:58

May I have a little photo of my children, please?

Presenter29:00

I think so. Stephanie Beacham, thank you very much indeed.

Stephanie Beacham29:02

Thank you.

Speaker 129:11

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